Disneyland 2016 Part 1: Expo & Park Fun

West Coast Baby! 

I started looking forward to this year's trip to Disneyland for the Run Disney Star Wars race weekend we were still in California for the inaugural race weekend in 2015! 

Haha!

There aren't many opportunities where I get to run, soak up some Disney magic, enjoy time with the wife AND see so many of my West Coast blends.

So to say that the wife and I were PSYCHED to head to Disneyland is an understatement.

When purchasing our flights, hotels, etc, we opted to go the 4-day park hopper pass since our flight was set to land around 9:30am. We figured we would've been at the hotel by 11am and done with the Expo by lunch. Then a whole afternoon of park time would be ahead of us.

A couple days before our flight (Jan 14) we checked out the times again and realized that American Air had changed our flight to an 8am flight. 

UGH!

If everything went to plan, our day would be backed up 2 hours. Of course this wasn't the end of the world, but it wasn't the start we wanted.

My mom dropped us off on January 14 - yay for living wicked close to Logan Airport - and we zoomed through security. 

We grabbed a quick breakfast and my last Dunkin coffee for the weekend.

The flight thankfully was direct and non-eventful. The American Air plane actually had individual TVs at each seat with complimentary movies and TV shows. It gave me a chance to catch-up on some Big Bang Theory and get myself in a Disney spirit with some old-school Disney cartoons.

Once we touched down in LA, the wife checked us into the Super Shuttle and we made our way through the crowd to find where the heck we were meeting it. :) 

It was nice to be at the LA Airport sans black eye this year!

The Super Shuttle manager had said our van would take 30 minutes to get there. I wanted to sneak off for Starbucks coffee, but the wife made us stay put. She had located the van on the Super Shuttle app and it was only about 10 minutes away. So we actually only had to wait about 12-15 minutes for the Shuttle. 

Finally off to Anaheim!

Super Shuttle is actually super easy to take and we were the first hotel to get dropped off. :) We returned to the Alpine Inn, which is where we stayed in 2015. It is basically smack in the middle of the corrals and the opening to the parks. We checked in quickly, threw our stuff in the room and gathered our stuff to head to the Expo/Parks.

But I had to make the first big decision of the trip: which ears to wear?!?!?! :)

I opted for bottom left. The pair I bought during our 2015 trip. :) 

With ears on, I was ready to soak up the magic.

Since we were on East Coast time, we made the wise decision to get lunch first. The wife was PSYCHED to be back at Earl of Sandwich. She loves that place. 

And it was time to start hydrating for the weekend's events. I was taking on the 5k, 10k and Half. The wife should've been doing the 10k and Half, but due to a knee injury she had to defer until 2017. Oh darn! We will just HAVE to be back next year too. ;)

Now that we were fueled, it was time to head to the Expo at the Disneyland Hotel.

I gathered up my 2 bibs (one bib was used for both the 10k and Half).

I couldn't wait to collect my 4 medals. 22.4 magical miles.

With bibs and shirts acquired, we headed to the "pre-ordered" merchandise table. The wife had splurged and bought herself the jacket for the weekend. Well since she wasn't running, the jacket then became mine. I felt bad that she wouldn't be able to enjoy it. But I liked the unexpected present.

The lines for the official merchandise were cah-ray-zy! So we opted to avoid that whole area. Plus there wasn't anything I really needed in there.

Instead we headed to the only 2 booths I needed to visit:

Sparkly Soul and PRO Compression

Oh hey hey!

What a haul, right? I needed all the headbands and all the socks. Luckily I was able to pick up my most recent PRO Compression purchase at the Expo. Talk about great Customer Service. :)

I was able to see my buddies AJ and Michael at the PRO booth. Let the weekend of shrieking and hugs begin.

Also my first FAIL of the trip - no picture. Oh did I let myself down there. But I wouldn't let it happen again. Luckily I would see both guys again so I could rectify the situation.

After another round of hugs, it was time for the wife and I to enjoy some park time!

Oh it felt awesome to walk through the gates and just soak in the atmosphere.

We headed straight to Main Street so I could get a quick picture of the Castle. Then we could go about our day. :P

I was ecstatic that they kept the 60 anniversary Diamond Celebration decorations up. I thought we were going to miss seeing them. But no! :) 

Once we secured that pic, we stashed our Expo gear in a locker. Well everything except my bibs. Ha. I made the wife keep those in her satchel in case someone broke into the locker. Yes I was that paranoid about the races. ;)

It was awesome just to walk around with the wife enjoying the scenes and the warmer weather. Mid 60s feels amazing to 2 folks that left 5 degree weather.

We wanted to try and stay out as late as possible, but were on East Coast time and failed miserably at that. :)

We had a 7pm dinner reservation at La Brea Bakery Cafe, but they actually took us early since they weren't busy. Yay! Success!

When we got back to the hotel, I took out my gear and costume pieces for the following morning's 5k. That is when I made the discovery... NO SHORTS!

AAAAHHHH!!!!

How did I pack an extra costume, but I forgot my running shorts?? No freakin' idea.

Enter my freakout! We opted to cut one of the pairs of capri pants I brought and make them into shorts. If they were uncomfortable, I could always buy shorts the following day. I just needed something to use for the 5k that was a mere 9 hours away.

I posted this freakout to Social Media and need to thank my blends for coming to the rescue. I posted the freakout at 9pm then promptly fell asleep. I proceeded to wake up to messages, tweets and missed calls from my local friends offering to take me to the store to buy some. Oh was my heart overflowing with love. 

But with makeshift shorts laid out with the rest of the 5k costume, I was able to fall asleep peacefully.

Up next: Star Wars 5k recap!